Since the beginning of the year, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have recorded approximately 100,000 to 150,000 cases of unauthorized abandonment of units (UAU) and desertion.
Sources in the General Staff informed BBC Ukraine about this.
At the same time, according to official data, the State Bureau of Investigations has opened 40,659 criminal cases related to UAU and another 19,826 for desertion from January to October 2024. This is two and a half times more than the total for 2023 (16,316 cases of UAU and 7,755 for desertion). In 2022, there were fewer than ten thousand cases for both offenses.
A senior official cited two main reasons for UAU and desertion to BBC: fatigue and "bussification." According to him, those who leave their positions are mainly individuals who were forcibly mobilized and sent to the front lines without adequate preparation, or those who have been fighting since the onset of the full-scale invasion and are morally exhausted.
Recently, the GBI reported that in a month, around a hundred military personnel were allowed to return to service after unauthorized abandonment of their units.
Just days ago, President Vladimir Zelensky commented on cases of UAU in the army.